The big story of week 12 was Folsom Blues Breakout Half, my last tune-up race before CIM, which also meant a much-needed mileage cut-back.
When I was scheduling things way back in March this race & my sister's wedding weekend seemed AGES apart (a whole week!!), but reality was very different. I kind of hit the ground running once we got back & felt like I never really got a chance to catch my breath, & several late nights and early morning work calls meant I didn't get as much as sleep as I probably needed.
By Wednesday I was actively starting to feel sick which was not not NOT how I had planned for this race weekend to go! I don't know what I would have done if this was supposed to be another 50+ week.
Grand Total: 35.5 miles
- * 14.3 easy
* 8 speed
* 13.1 race(ish)
Monday 10/17: Rest/fly home from Tejas.
Tuesday 10/18: 2 warm-up, 3 x 800m / 300m jog, 30:00 @ MP, 3 x 800m / 300m jog, 2 cool down = 10 speed/12 total.
- Going into this run, I was NOT feeling particularly excited about it considering a) Sunday's sketchy tempo run and how difficult those not-even-8:00 miles felt, b) it's the second longest track session on my schedule, and c) I was planning to race a half hard just five days later.
I felt a little better after the warm-up, but I still wanted to save my legs for FBB so tried hard to keep the 800m's in check & within just a few seconds of the assigned 7:00 pace. The 30:00 at marathon felt surprisingly easy (which I did not expect after Sunday), and I actually finished the workout feeling as as if I'd run maybe 4-6 miles easy & not at all like I had just finished 12 on the track. Maybe consistent training, like, works or whatever?
Wednesday 10/19: Karate. Also, start feeling sick.
Thursday 10/20: 8 easy.
- As I think I've written about every Thursday easy run for the past 11 weeks, I started out feeling sort of tired & crappy, but by the end actually felt pretty good. The cherry on top was plugging all the data into my running economy spreadsheet & seeing that this was actually the most efficient run heart rate-wise I've done since I started tracking the data. (More evidence that consistent training is not complete bullshit? You be the judge!) Didn't see that coming after Sunday!
Friday 10/21: Rest.
- My favorite part of race week! Also highly necessary considering how crappy I was feeling. Basically I came home from work a little early, ate a bowl of cereal, and went to bed.
Saturday 10/22: 2 easy.
- Got up at 7:30am to do my shakeout run & watch Stanford lose an ugly game (boo), headed back to SF, threw my stuff in the car, & got on the road to Folsom.
Sunday 10/23: .3 warm up + 13.1 race = 13.4 total
- Race report coming soon!
* * *
CIM 2016 Week 1 of 18 - It's On
CIM 2016 Week 2 of 18 - Escape From NY (Barely)
CIM 2016 Week 3 of 18 - A Discount Code to Share (+ back on Strava!)
CIM 2016 Week 4 of 18 - 18/day, 47.5/week, 205.5/month.
CIM 2016 Week 5 of 18 - That cutback feeling
CIM 2016 Week 6 of 18 - french toast, trail shoes, & a little race fatigue
CIM 2016 Week 7 of 18 - Big week & feelin' fine!
CIM 2016 Week 8 of 18 - Knee Troubles :(
CIM 2016 Week 9 of 18 - Improvement on the knee front!
CIM 2016 Week 10 of 18 - Train kept a-rollin' (+ free shoes!)
CIM 2016 Week 11 of 18 - Texas Half Marathon #1 (+ my sister's wedding!)
Phew. Hang in there - you're now in what I always feel is the toughest phase of marathon training, which is 'I've been going long enough that all the physical and mental fatigue has piled up and the latter is even more of a struggle than the former'. Looking forward to that race report!
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